Rep. Elijah Cummings (D) Elected April 1996, 5th full term
Born:	Jan. 18, 1951, Baltimore
Home:	Baltimore
Education:	Howard U., B.S. 1973, U. of MD, J.D. 1976
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	divorced
Elected  Office:	MD House of Delegates, 1982-96, Speaker Pro-Tem, 1995-96.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1976-96.
DC Office	2235 RHOB20515, 202-225-4741; Fax: 202-225-3178; Web site: www.house.gov/cummings
State Offices	Baltimore, 410-685-9199.
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At the junction of North and South, terminus of America's first railroad and the East Coast port closest to the great West, Baltimore is one of the few American cities to have had large numbers of both blacks and European immigrants throughout its history. Its black community has a rich and notable history. The Afro-American newspaper has been published here for more than 100 years and there was once a black symphony orchestra. Eubie Blake, the famous black musician and one of the founders of ragtime music, grew up here and now has a museum in his honor on Charles Street. Jazz great Billie Holliday was born here; these were the stomping grounds of the great musician Cab Calloway and the great advocate Thurgood Marshall. Near downtown on the west side is the childhood home of Babe Ruth and the home of H.L. Mencken, two great white Baltimoreans. For years this side of town had a biracial, bipartisan politics in which Democrats like Governor Albert Ritchie and Republicans like Mayor and Governor Theodore McKeldin competed zestfully for black and white votes.

Baltimore has been a black majority city since the late 1970s, and most of its west side neighborhoods are heavily black. In the 1990s Baltimore had a terrible crime wave, with open drug markets on both the west and east sides. Mayor Martin O'Malley, elected in 1999, has taken a different approach as mayor, promising to build "a new Baltimore" with "zero tolerance" of crime; with his enthusiasm and photogenic family, plus encouragement from some party operatives, he quickly attracted national attention.

Maryland's 7th Congressional District includes most of Baltimore's black neighborhoods, reaches into the heavily black suburbs running west from the city, to Catonsville along the old Baltimore National Pike, and also extends west to include most of suburban Howard County. Democratic redistricters added Howard County in 2002 (and removed some black Baltimore neighborhoods) to strengthen Democrats' chances of capturing the mostly suburban 2d District (which they did). Redistricting reduced the black population of the district from 75% to 59%; essentially, Democratic redistricters decided to reduce the number of blacks and substitute the Baltimore suburbanites least inclined to resent an inner city voting record. About 40% of the district's votes are cast in Baltimore city's precincts, largely north of Pratt Street, in places like Druid Heights, Charles Village (home to Johns Hopkins University), Harlem Park and poverty-stricken Sandtown-Winchester. Howard County is quite a different area: It grew 32% in the 1990s and its largest community, Columbia, has been called a planned town, though it differs from most other Baltimore suburbs by attracting a culturally liberal population. It tends to vote Democratic, but not overwhelmingly, and in 2004 cast 37% of the district's votes. There is a sharp socioeconomic contrast between these two parts of the district: In Howard County, 32% of families earned more than $100,000 in 2000 and 4% of children under five were in poverty status; in Baltimore City, only 6% earned more than $100,000 and 32% of children were poor.

The congressman from the 7th District is Elijah Cummings, who won a 1996 special election after Kweisi Mfume resigned to become president of the NAACP. Cummings grew up in Baltimore, graduated from Howard University and the University of Maryland law school, practiced law in Baltimore, and in 1982, at 31, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. Two years later he was chairman of the Legislative Caucus, the youngest in its history, and he became known as a consensus builder. Cummings's main competition came from the Reverend Frank Reid III, stepbrother of Mayor Kurt Schmoke, who raised $255,000. Cummings had support from community development organizations and from businessmen and lobbyists. He raised $450,000, and won 37% of the vote to 24% for Reid. He has not been seriously challenged in a primary or general since then.

Cummings still lives in troubled west Baltimore, where urban realities have made him a crusader against drug abuse and a death-penalty foe; he favors strict gun control. His voting record is very liberal, usually the most liberal in the delegation; he was the only Marylander to oppose the 1996 welfare act. On the Government Reform Committee he has been ranking Democrat on the Criminal Justice subcommittee, where he also tends to the interests of his many federal employees.

Cummings was chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 2003 and 2004. He spoke out on issues ranging from a presidential succession crisis in Haiti to the ouster of Trent Lott as Senate majority leader and the appointment of federal judges. He endorsed Howard Dean in December 2003; he later enthusiastically endorsed the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Redistricting contributed to a reduction in Cummings's winning percentage in 2002 and 2004 but he still won by landslide margins. In both years he carried Howard County only narrowly, but won more than 90% of the votes in Baltimore City.

Committees

• Government Reform (7th of 17 D): Criminal Justice, Drug Policy & Human Resources (RMM); Federal Workforce & Agency Organization.
• Transportation & Infrastructure (13th of 34 D): Highways, Transit & Pipelines; Railroads.
• Joint Economic Committee (10th of 10 Reps.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	100	82	100	91	20	7	30	0	0	16	--
2003	90	--	100	90	--	20	25	14	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	77%	--	23%		93%	--	7%
Social	81%	--	19%		78%	--	19%
Foreign	87%	--	13%		90%	--	9%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers * 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Elijah Cummings (D)	179,189	73%	$877,808
	Tony Salazar (R)	60,102	25%	$109,426
	Other	4,892	2%
2004 primary	Elijah Cummings (D)	53,015	91%
	Charles McPeek (D)	4,972	9%
2002 general	Elijah Cummings (D)	137,047	74%	$466,160
	Joseph Ward (R)	49,172	26%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (87%); 1998 (86%); 1996 (83%); 1996 (81%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 192,081 (73%) Bush (R) 69,545 (26%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 166,410 (73%) Bush (R) 57,262 (25%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Seventh District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +25
• District Size: 296 square miles
• Population in 2000: 662,060; 94.9% urban; 5.1% rural
• Median Household Income: $38,885; 17.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 16.2% blue collar; 66.7% white collar; 17.1% gray collar; 12.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 34.2% White, 58.8% Black, 3.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.3% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 1.7% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 7.9% German, 6.0% Irish, 4.6% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.